Her bright blue eyes were singing an ode to joy and accompanying the music, was her magnificent smile. Sitting, smiling, and singing with her eyes, at a coffee shop that serves the bitter brew on the burnt side. Her friend introduced me to her across from the table, and I knew I had met someone special. Someone who was childlike, innocent, and full of gratitude.
Her story was not strange, abandoned as a baby, foster homes, you know the routine. She saw the compassion in my eyes as she told the story and said : “Jonathan, please don’t feel sorry for me, we cannot choose who loves us, but we can choose to love” She had chosen to love. I asked her what she was grateful for and she giggled, as her eyes grew big and she said: “Today I am so grateful that I can have a nice long hot shower in my apartment, volunteer at a food kitchen, and have an apartment close to the bus stop and the library” Simple things, often taken for granted in our lives. She didn’t own a car, she cleaned other people’s houses for a living, and probably did not have an overflowing retirement fund.
She did not seem to have travelled to exotic places, earned higher degrees or participated in the Olympics, but she oozed joy. Joy seeped out of her very pores, like water out of a squished sponge, and it came from her ability to be outrageously grateful. She reminded me of the simple gifts of life and the incredible joy that always accompanies gratitude. Gratitude accompanies joy like the birds that herald spring. Does joy ooze out of you? If it does not, check your gratitude quotient. You might find the secret there!
What are you grateful for today?
